REVIEW – Forgotten Legions (DSiWare)

Merkhovius believes himself to be just another misunderstood person who has gained the power to defeat those who oppose him. It is an epic real-time strategy, but will it keep you hooked, or will you delete it in hopes of something better?

Story and Plot

As the opening scene poetically states, Merkhovius has been banished from Riverkeep. Even though, he believes this should not have happened, the punishment remains. However, he has recently gained access to a very powerful evil that will allow him to control the undead and defeat those who banished him.

In the main campaign, instead of trying to take out Merkhovius, you will control the evil side of the undead. Unfortunately, though, the story does not really branch out more than what you know so far. In fact, between each of the 30 levels, you just learn more about the powers of those your team and those you are facing. It is an epic tale, but it falls a bit flat.

Gameplay and Controls

There are two modes: Campaign and Endless. In the campaign mode, you will work your way through 30 levels, each with increasing difficulty. Your goal, as you might have assumed, is to take out the good guys. Some players may think that is a low number of levels, and they would be correct. Thankfully, Endless mode allows you to pick a side and fight until you die. While there is no online leaderboards built into the game itself, you can post your high scores to their website via a 24-digit code. This is rather cumbersome, and it would have been much better to include an actual leaderboard within the game.

Controls are completely touch-based. If you are familiar with games like Plants vs. Zombies, you will catch on rather quickly. You place your characters on the right side of the touch screen. As time goes on, and as you defeat more and more enemies, you will be able to place more and more characters down on your side. Everything is based on a grid, which also allows you to move your team up, down, left, and right as they walk along the path. Each character has their own attack and defense, so you must choose wisely who to put down and where to put them. You do have a map that helps you know where to expect enemies ahead, but you will not know what type of enemy until you get close enough.

Honestly, the controls are really simple, and most players will catch on quickly. The best way to think of this game is a reverse of Plants vs. Zombies, and that is a fun experience. Although, it might be a bit slow paced in the beginning for some players.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are decent for a DSiWare game. They are dark, but each character basically looks like the fantasy character he or she was meant to portray. The map that displays on the top screen is rather small, especially in longer levels. Unfortunately, this combines with the sub-par graphics of DSiWare to make it somewhat difficult to know exactly which line enemies will pop up. Similarly, it is sometimes difficult to tell what part of the grid your characters are in on the touch screen. Fortunately, the occasional animated pictures between the levels look pretty good.

The music and sounds are a mixed bag. The main theme is full, especially for a small DSiWare game. Unfortunately, the music during battle is not as good. While it does give a proper sense of an epic battle, it does not have the full rich sound as the main theme. The sound effects are usually good, though, and they are never inappropriate, as they convey the sound you would expect for a battle.

Final Score: 6.5 out of 10

Forgotten Legions is a game many people will overlook, but that should not necessarily be the case. If using simple touch to control an army of undead sounds appealing to you, then you should check out this game. For only five bucks, it is worth trying. Just make sure you do not go in expecting a huge storyline with amazing graphics and sound. In fact, you might just want to go play a game like Plants vs. Zombies instead.

Steve is a Senior Editor for NintendoFuse. He has been a Nintendo fan since the NES and Game Boy. His favorite types of games are action platformers, multiplayer “party” games, and any game that is pure fun and pulls him in for hours. Steve has been blogging for NintendoFuse since 2008.